Batman Beyond: Epilogue
by The Crobatman
Summary: 15 years in the future, Terry discovers something shocking, something he didn't suspect, but should have for years.


_**I CLAIM NOTHING**_

**Disclaimer: This is me writing the story form of the final episode of Justice League Unlimited, just posting it because I wanted to write about that visit between Terry and Bruce. **

***SPOILERS*  
>All events in this fanfic.. Well, it's not really a fanfic, it's more of an adaptation, actually happened in DCAU canon. Everything is owned by WB!- <strong>

He had never felt such emotion in his life, a swirl of anger, frustration, denial, realization, hate, confusion, and sadness were all that filled his head… There was only one thing on his mind; He wanted answers.

Terry ripped the grandfather clock away from its wall, and stormed into the Batcave. An aging Bruce Wayne sat at the computer when he heard the loud smashing of the door.

"How could you do it to me Bruce?" Terry yelled from the top of the stairs. The old man turned slightly in his chair.

"The only thing that matters is the mission, you know that." He replied, his voice unusually gruff.

"What about people? Dick, Tim, Barbara, Selina… They all loved you but eventually they all left you! Ever wonder why?" Terry questioned, nearing the old man.

"Never, they left because they didn't have the heart for the mission… Are you about to leave too? Doesn't really surprise me."

"It doesn't?" Terry asked angrily, confused at Bruce's conceit.

"Of course not, you're no different from the others, kids in over their heads." Bruce said, his words cut like a knife.

"You arrogant son of a-…" Terry began, but Bruce spoke, "When did you finally figure it out?"

"When your kidneys failed last week, and they needed a tissue donor to clone you new ones…" Terry recalled.

"… Turns out I'm a perfect histocompatibility match with you… Perfect."

Terry stared Bruce in the eye, the man he trusted for so long had been lying to him for so many years.

"You know the odds?" Terry asked, gritting his teeth.

"One hundred and eleven to one." Bruce replied.

"Exactly."

"I was sixteen years old when you started training me Bruce," Terry looked away, "a punk kid with a smart mouth and potential even I didn't suspect! I may have pretended otherwise, but I looked up to you, worshipped you!" The man of 31 admitted, but the man in his 100's stayed stone-faced. "What you wanted from me, I could not give to anyone."

Terry couldn't think of a reply to him, he was afraid of saying something he'd regret. He walked over to a guardrail on the edge of a metal cliff and leaned on it.

"My dad wasn't a superhero, he didn't save the world from the near-apocalypse of '09, he never went toe-to-toe with Mr. Freeze but he was a good man just the same! Even after the divorce, he always did his best to help out… Helped mom when she couldn't quite make the bills, always made sure me and my brother were cared for. Tried to teach me right and wrong…" Terry scowled into the darkness, "… Would have too if I had ever listened… And he never laid a hand on me even though Lord Knows I was asking for it."

Bruce finally spoke, "What's your point?"

Terry felt that rage again, "What's my _point_?"

He walked back over to Bruce, "My **point **is that I never doubted he loved me with all his heart. My **point **is, that all those warm feelings I had for my dad? It turns out they were just another lie! Another thing in the long list of things you've stolen from me!"

Terry finally came eye-level with the old man, yelling in his face, "My point is that I just found out Warren McGinnis isn't my father! _**You are**_!"

Bruce remained calm, there was silence between them for a moment, then the old man spoke again, "What do you want from me?"

"The truth, the whole truth!"

"Sounds like you already have it."  
>"I guess I just didn't want to believe you were so, incredibly, <em>arrogant, <em>that you thought the world couldn't go on without you!"

"Or someone like me." Bruce sat back in his chair and folded his hands.

"It's not arrogance, it's fact."

"You set the whole thing up!" Terry snarled, pointing a finger at Bruce.

"How?" Bruce raised his voice for the first time in that visit.

"You were a teenager when I first met your mother."

"Maybe you dug up some of that old nanotech, used it to re-write my DNA into an exact copy of yours!"

"That technology's been illegal for over forty years."

"Didn't stop the Joker from using it on Tim Drake!"

Bruce's eyes widened, then he glared at Terry, who closed his eyes and looked down. "Alright, low blow…" Then he looked back up at Bruce, "… Cause you'd never lie to me, right?"

"Believe what you want, accident or not, it's a good thing you're almost a clone of me. The world _does _need a Batman, and it always will." Bruce then broke into a coughing fit, reaching for a capsule of pills, he then continued in a gruffer voice.

"The mantle of Batman is an honor… Terry."

The old man overdid it trying to open the pill case, and they spilled all over the floor. He fell to his knees and went after the medicine.

"You know what old man?" Terry asked rhetorically, "All those years, it turns out everyone was right, you **are **insane! Being Batman's no honor!"

The younger Bat turned to leave, "It's a curse." He said, just loud enough for his mentor to hear.

They both glared at each other, then Terry left, Bruce on the floor and entrance to the batcave destroyed. As well as his ties to Bruce Wayne.

_**I CLAIM NOTHING**_


End file.
